[quote=Deathmetalconga;1138376]Wow! Beautiful! I don't often see mahogany in staves.

If I can overcome my security locks at work, cant get my photo links anymore. But I am nearing the halfway mark building a stave kit out of 110 year old antique North American Mahogany. Shallow shell toms, 10X7/ 12X7.25/ 14X7.5 and a 15X12 racked floor. I steam bent maple reinforcing rings and am in process of doing an inlaid 3/4" Olive Ash Burl inlay around the center of each drum. Kick will be a 20X17 or 18 using modern African Mahaogany as I only had enough antique stuff to do the toms. Hopefully I can get pics up soon.

A 6.5X10" popcorn snare I just finished.
I have relented and have named my drums, so far all have been without a name, still thinking about an outer badge, for now just a label stating general spec of each drum.

Almost done my next 3 snares, all are 7X14.

Clear coat needs a couple weeks to cure before I can wet sand and polish to a glass like finish. Hard waiting, just want to assemble and play them.

Becoming quite a popular size & configuration, this 13" x 7" In-Tense series segmented snare in English ash & ovangkol is off to a customer in Belgium on Monday. It's a nice day here, so I thought I'd take a few snapshots.

Love those wood hoops. I need to learn how to do that. I have basic idea, but I am sure I would destroy the first few attempts getting the order of the process sorted.

Thank you :) They're a ton of work, & I mean a ton of work. If we make 10 pairs at a time, it takes 15 days if you include finishing. One pair from scratch takes 3 days, & that's when you're already setup with tooling, etc.

Two segmented layers made up in the usual way with angled shoulders (just like a shallow stave), each segment finger jointed both ends, each ring glued up separately at the joints, then the two complete layers glued up (staggered). After that, seven different machining operations (spindle moulder & lathe) + snare cutout on the reso hoop. Sanding to finish - coat of shellac - sand again - two coats of shellac - fine sand - 4 coats of wax, buffed off after each coat. We do a single layer version for toms & bass drums. Twin layer is for the higher tensions required by snares.

I always use as big a stave as I can, less glue/ more wood=better.
Most of my stock is 1 inch thick which leaves quite a bit to play with on the lathe.
This Birdseye maple is 7x14 and used only 14 staves.

Same as this mahogany/walnut, and I even had room on this to account for the Walnut being a little narrower than the African mahogany.

I always use as big a stave as I can, less glue/ more wood=better.
Most of my stock is 1 inch thick which leaves quite a bit to play with on the lathe.
This Birdseye maple is 7x14 and used only 14 staves.

Neat. Do you put any curve in the staves prior to assembly? Or just make them thicker and lathe the hell out of them? And do you lathe the inside? What's the fewest number of staves you've ever done on a shell? I'd think six would really be pushing it.

If you don't lathe the inside, that would mean the drums are round on the outside but blocky on the inside, and thinner near the joints and thicker in the middle of each stave. That would seem to add overtones and richness, as the shell would vibrate a bit differently in different places, in contrast to a ply, whole wood, steambent or many-staved shell, which vibrates more uniformly all the way around, or so I would think.

It is all cut down on the lathe. I do finish the inside, but I don't usually go finer than 100-120 grit with sandpaper, I feel it gives the snare more warmth as opposed to a highly polished reflective surface in my opinion.

It is all cut down on the lathe. I do finish the inside, but I don't usually go finer than 100-120 grit with sandpaper, I feel it gives the snare more warmth as opposed to a highly polished reflective surface in my opinion.

Truly beautiful work!

Love the stickers inside. Me and bandmates would come up with marketing slogans for drum products like this: